


Legacy

by Romennim



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Challenge Response, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-15
Updated: 2013-02-15
Packaged: 2017-11-29 09:27:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/685400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Romennim/pseuds/Romennim
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is a chamber, concealed by a maze of corridors, in the core of  Camelot's castle that can be found only out of chance or boredom.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Legacy

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Italiano available: [Retaggio](https://archiveofourown.org/works/685413) by [Romennim](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Romennim/pseuds/Romennim)



> **Beta:** [](http://inspired-being.livejournal.com/profile)[**inspired_being**](http://inspired-being.livejournal.com/)  
> 
> Written for the [fanfic challenge #6](http://community.livejournal.com/merlinxarthur/3048430.html) at [](http://merlinxarthur.livejournal.com/profile)[**merlinxarthur**](http://merlinxarthur.livejournal.com/). The photo that inspired me is #2 and can be found [here](http://i574.photobucket.com/albums/ss188/bcmoodtheme/mxachallenge6/challengepic2.jpg).

There is a chamber, concealed by a maze of corridors, in the core of Camelot's castle that can be found only out of chance or boredom.

The latter is the reason why young Arthur found the room in the first place: he's fed up with etiquette lessons and his tutor's monologues about a long dead Greek philosophers. He doesn't understand why he should spend so much time learning about dead people that weren't warriors (because stories about those are always interesting). So, as many times before, he's running; even if he feels, deep down, that he shouldn't. His father has lectured him many times about why learning and studying is important. He understands, really he does, but why should he do it for so many hours every day and not, maybe, increase his daily time dedicated to training to be a knight, instead?

His father is not good at listening to requests, so Arthur is now trying to find a place where he hasn't gone before, to spend a few hours in peace and maybe fantasize about the epic deeds of some famous knight that his nanny or Gaius have told him about.

Running down the stairs towards the dungeon, he sees a little alcove near a statue that he has never noticed before. Curious, he ventures closer and sees a dark, little passage. He's pretty sure that no one has gone there for a long time: the dust on the floor and the spider webs hanging from the ceiling are proof of this and means it could be a very good hiding place.

Arthur's heart begins to race out of curiosity and, yes, a little bit of fear as well, but he tries to suppress the last. After all, he's going to be a knight one day and then a king. It's not fitting for him to be afraid of a dark corridor!

Resolving to triumph over his fear, Arthur takes a torch from the wall and begins to walk down the corridor with his heart in his throat. He knows there are no dangers in the castle, but this might be his only adventure in ages! The last time he snuck away from his tutor, he thought he heard a voice calling for him from beneath his feet while he was inside the castle. He didn't get far, that time, before a guard found him wandering near the dungeon. Afterwards, he thought he had imagined everything and didn't try to go down there again.

So, this was his chance to live an adventure! He wouldn't let a bit of darkness ruin this chance.

After a few minutes of walking, he can see a soft light in front of him and, as he draws closer, a chamber. When he finally enters it, he's struck by the beauty and the oddity of the room, which is lit up by the afternoon sun coming from a big window on the left that creates a strange atmosphere. It seems as if the room is out of another time, ancient and mysterious. In front of him, there's like a path of stone where someone can walk on, because on the floor there are a few inches of current water; on both sides, near the walls, and at the end of the room, in front of him, lined up as in a battalion, there are, at least, a hundred statues of kings or knights or warriors... Everyone has a suit of armour and is armed, in different ways. Someone has his sword and shield, someone is light-armed with only his bow, someone has a morning star or a flail or a mace.

Arthur is overwhelmed by the sight and would like to go closer, but somehow, even if the water level is so low, its presence stops him, forcing him to observe from afar and making him even more fascinated and reverent than he already is.

He sits down on the paved path and can't stop himself from wondering if that statue over there is Sir Ethelweard, who saved a village from the wrath of a gryphon, or if that one is King Aedh, who was able to convince the Elf King of the Northern Forest to release a maiden taken hostage, or if that one is Sir Eochaid who slaughtered one of the last dragons of the distant Dalriada.

He just sits there, fantasizing about every statue, every person he remembers from tales and only when the light is really fading away, leaving only the torch to make him see, he decides to go back to his chambers.

At his return, he finds his father in his room, and the angry expression on his face lets him know there will be punishment, since half of the castle has wasted time looking for him, but Arthur doesn't really care. He has found something worth a few afternoons with more etiquette lessons. He has found something like a sanctuary from his boring life, where he can dream to be one of those brave men, to be one day able to do something worth of legend.

So, in the years, he continues to go in that chamber, and, with time, the role of that room changes: it's not a place to dream of being one of those knights anymore and begins to be the place where Arthur can be alone, think about what his father as a King does wrong and about the needs of his people. It is the place where he can hide himself when he doesn't want to be Camelot's knight and then its Crown Prince. It is the place where he can be free to think what he wants about his lands, about his people, about magic, and not feel like he's committing high treason. It's the only place in the castle where he can permit himself to worry: what is he going to offer to his people? Is he going to be a good king? Are his people going to be proud of him as King Aedh's people were of their sovereign?

There, he can admit to himself that sometimes he doesn't feel worthy of his people, that he doesn't believe he will live to everyone's expectations, because he's pulled from too many directions.

 

Then Merlin stumbles in his life, and everything changes again. Arthur, at the beginning, is puzzled, confused; it's difficult to find a way to label the role that Merlin plays in his life, and that is foreign to him, since everyone has a clear role in his life: Uther is his father and the King, Gaius is his healer, Morgana is Uther's ward, Gwen is a servant, Sir Leon is the captain of the knights. Somehow, everyone has a role, but they're not someone he's familiar with because he's Arthur, but only because he's the Prince. But Merlin is a manservant and at the same time, he is not: he doesn't attend to his duties very well, finds too many excuses for not doing them and talks back too much.

Then, while remaining a servant, he becomes a friend, Arthur's friend, not the Prince's, since Princes don't have friends. At the same time, though, Arthur can feel that Merlin is not completely honest with him, even if they're friends and Merlin knows him better than anyone: there's something that Merlin keeps very close to his chest and, if at the beginning, that hurts Arthur, he understands that it is nothing that defines Merlin so much to alter him. He knows Merlin, who he is, at his core, and no mysterious secret can change that.

It takes time, but Arthur notices another effect of his and Merlin's friendship, the one that later will make him love the idiot: Merlin makes him a better person and a better leader. He makes him think, he makes him criticize himself, who he is, what he does. Before Merlin, his people were something like an abstract entity, that Arthur has the duty to defend. With Merlin, his people become the village inhabitants threatened by a group of bandits, the mother worried because his son has disappeared in the forest.

He notices that people come first to him, then to his father, but only if that is his advice and with his aid. He becomes someone to trust, to rely on, to come to when there's a problem. Finally, Arthur feels like he has found his place, what he's meant to be, his legacy. With time, his feeling of unworthiness slowly disappears, and when he goes to that chamber, he doesn't feel little, meaningless, compared to those statues.

When he remembers the smile a girl bestowed upon him for saving her brother, he thinks he can stand in that chamber proud of himself. But nothing can compare to the smile Merlin gives him when he does something good: that smile makes him go on despite the difficulties, the injustices he's father is so fond of, that smile is what makes him want to leave the bed every morning and try to be a better person. That smile is the sign he's something his people can be proud of.

And when finally arrives the moment when he can find that smile every morning at his side, when he opens his eyes for a new day, he feels like his life is complete, and, even if not everything is perfect, not yet, at least, he thinks he can live up at the expectations of the people he cares about. And that is everything that matters because that is the legacy he wants to pass to the next generations, to the kids who could find that chamber and see, maybe, a statue that could make them think of him. He's someone made better by those who love him and that is his legacy.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on March 19th, 2011


End file.
